Dr. Jim Shaddix is Senior Pastor of Riverside Baptist Church in Denver, CO. He is the author of two books, Power in the Pulpit with Jerry Vines, and The Passion Driven Sermon. He formerly served as professor of preaching at New Orleans Baptist Seminary.
“The Parable of the Young Baptist: Informed Speculation on the Future of the Traditional Church”
My assignment tonight is to talk about the future of the traditional church, so that is what I want to address. I want you to meet a young Baptist tonight from an evaporating pool of young Baptists. If we want to take a look at the future of the SBC, we need to take a look at the young Baptists. Our young people are not running to something; they are running away from something. Our children are not running from a lifeless style and form; they are running from a lifeless Christianity. We have got to sit up and take notice. The intangible, what we cannot see, what we cannot touch, what we cannot hear–that’s what takes the wrap.
The emerging churches and alternative venues are not as appealing to the unchurched as the marginally churched in our camps. Our young people are not reacting to our styles or forms. Take our hymns for example. They are being revived by young songwriters. They are not opposed to hymns; they are opposed to the lifeless and heartless ways we sing them. Did you know that the organ is played more in a professional baseball game than in our churches today? Have you noticed that our young people listen to David Letterman and Jay Leno who wear suits and ties?
We have created irrelevance from within our own camps. We are not taking time to identify the real problem.
I believe the traditional church will strive and thrive if it understands that our young people are leaving not because of what we are giving them but what we are not giving them.
One factor is certain: Every non-traditional philosophy will expire. Postmodernism and its child, the emerging church, is faddish. The more recent the movement and mindset, the shorter it will be, the shorter the shelf life. We run everything to its limit at a faster pace.
Many traditional churches have an admirable reverence for the past. Every church grabbing towards the latest trend and fad are looking for methodolody, not theology.
One factor yet to be determined: What exactly will our young people find waiting for them if and when they come home? They will return to their roots if they are strong and deep.
Interesting perspective, and I have some sympathy because my personal preference is traditional worship. However, I am a member of a church where the 10:45 service (the only one I can attend and be in the choir) is mostly not traditional. So why do I still go there? Because people are coming to Christ in consistent numbers. I don’t care if we do Gregorian chants; if it’s working let’s go with it. Of course, I agree that we should not change the message, but it may be necessary to change how we deliver it. I am not sure how anyone could read all of Paul’s writings and conclude that there is only one good way to do church. Didn’t he say he became all things to all people to win some? I take that to mean he thought reaching people was so important that he was willing to do anything that was not immoral to reach them. Seems like a good plan to me.
Thanks for detailing this one for me Timmy. Got my sermon done instead!
Honestly, I thought that this was one of the better sessions that I have attended (No offense to any of the other speakers, especially Dr. Dockery and Dr. Thornbury!). As a college student, I felt like Dr. Shaddix hit the nail right on the head as far as the frustrations of my generation with the SBC. His address seemed to also carry the most practical solutions to fix and/or limit the damage. I very much appreciated his comments on the expository preaching of the text every Sunday – there are a lot of cheap imitations. It was good to meet you today, man (right before Dr. Dockery’s session)! I also enjoyed your comment/question after Dr. Thornbury’s address – you spoke for a lot of people. Keep up the good work, brother!
Thanks for this, Timmy. Got a lot of respect for that man and what he did at my church here in New Orleans.
I guess I am a late comer to this post….but I just listened to the podcast of Dr. Shaddix’s message. Coming from one of the more “moderate” SBC congregations in Louisiana, I feel slightly un-nerved by what Dr. Shaddix said. I can identity with who he is, my father attended NOBTS around the same time as Dr. Shaddix recieving both his MDiv and D.Min there. They seem to be the same age and ministering around the same size congregations.
I am one of the prodigal’s that has left the SBC and decided to come back to it. But I didn’t come back with loving arms, and I didn’t come back because I found nothing outside the SBC doctrinal viewpoint. I simply was not willing to give up a few key SBC doctrinal viewpoinst, mainly the authority of the local church and the high level of missions emphasis.
While I could have been identified as “Emergent” several years ago (and still am an active member in my local Emergent co-hort in lexington), I know identify myself as more ecumenical minded Christian that agrees with the Radical Orthodoxy project. The things that I found interesting in more “emergent” (and I use that term sparingly, since there are no major points to acutually identify on) views, I now understand that alot of what I vibed with was just classical, consensual christianity. I am a student at Asbury Theological Seminary right now and I plan to stay SBC through my tenure here and in my ministry after seminary.
My main point of contention with this message was how the phrase ‘traditional” was simply speaking of something that was common 50 years ago. No Baptist worth their sweet tea and choir robe would say that the Christian Church began in the mid-1840’s or reached it’s climax in the 1950’s. If this is true, how can we cling to what has been a short lived viewpoint that is only held to be consensual by a small minority in the history of the Christian Church. This is just one of my beliefs that will make me staying in the SBC hard, but it is not enough to make me want to leave the heritage that I grew up in. Maybe this is just the difference between a Baptist raised in the coservative vs. the moderate Baptist Church.
But I do agree that Dr. Shaddix touched on many of the reason why people and even minsters my age have left the convention (I am 27). These were good thoughts, but I am scared that it just segmented the views of the SBC facing the idea of postmodernity even more.